For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

Friday, March 14, 2008

It's the Little Things....

Thanks Mom!! I love it!!!
Momma,this looks yucky!
"Nolan, does it taste good? Should I try it?"

Brad and I are really working on debt reduction. We were very blessed to attend a financial class through our church (check out the link on our website). One of the plans is to stay on budget, and to help out with that budget, I plan bi-weekly menus. I don't know about you guys, but I hate always planning the menu only to have the family say," Uck!". So, I started using a plan which I learned from my mom. Each of the kids gets to list 2 meals that they would like to see on the menu. Brad and my choices round out the remaining days. I say all this to set the scene for a meal that we had this week.

Mandy had her turn to pick the meals. Now, when we brought Mandy home from China, she would not touch anything except rice,noodles, hardboiled eggs and fresh fruit. Over the past few months she has made great strides in learning to like American food. She hated pizza and now loves it. Her favorite food still contains noodles...but it has tomato sauce on it(Pasketti/Spaghetti as she says). On this pick, she decided to stretch mom's cooking skills. "Momma can you make Chinese Food?". So, mom gave it her best shot. I attempted to make Chicken Chow Mein...or maybe it was more like Chicken Chop Suey...lol. It didn't look great; however, it did taste a little better than it looked. [I have to put in here that we have been many times out to eat "China Food" (as the girls would say); however, Chinese food is not an area of cooking that I excel at,and I have never made it at home. We all love to eat at a little place here in town (not exactly authentic but good), and we eat there a few times a month. ]

I discovered that this little step spoke volumes to my daughter. She was ecstatically happy that mom tried to make "her " food. She was very kind and complimentary of the meal, and she ate it with gusto until her plate was clear. The look on her face just made me have to smile! I would never have dreamed that such a simple thing could brighten her day. As you can tell by the pictures, the other kids weren't so enthusiastic! Maybe I will get better with practice???

1 comment:

Jill and Rick said...

Kim, I made Chinese food for the first time last night! LOL, we're on the same wavelength this week. My girls also truly appreciated the effort. We had egg drop soup (VERY simple recipe - good, but I would change it slightly next time) We also had pork dumplings - also very good and much easier than I would have thought, and some orange chicken. The chicken had good flavor, but I should have removed all the chili peppers before Rick and Ricky dished up their plates, . . . plus I will make a lot more sauce for the chicken next time. My girls really ate the soup and dumplings well, and Ashlie kept saying how good the dumplings were. (but you never know - before the meal she told me, "Mom, I'll tell you that I like it, even if I don't." LOL!!)

Jill